Windows Home Server, FreeNas or Amahi?

[rei]

Not readable unless running Vail.

[tolwyn]

So, I've tried WHS, WHS 2011, FreeNas, Amahi and Ubuntu Server. I'll be going forward with WHS, it seems simple to use, and i like the drive extender more than I thought I would.

Coupla more questions on WHS:

When you select duplicate folder on a share, does it only back up to a drive you designate for backups (ie 'Use this hard drive to back up files') or does it replicate it in the background on another drive without me having to worry about it?

If I have a drive that fails in the extended drive pool, is the data lost (ala JBOD) or will it just warn me to replace it, then it will re-populate?

If I create a user, can I create a folder that is only visible to them?

How do you back up the server OS itself? Do you go with the built in or 3rd party?

Thanks for all the help, it has been invaluable.

[Gendal]

When you select duplicate folder on a share, does it only back up to a drive you designate for backups (ie 'Use this hard drive to back up files') or does it replicate it in the background on another drive without me having to worry about it?

Replicates in background to a random, different drive.

If I have a drive that fails in the extended drive pool, is the data lost (ala JBOD) or will it just warn me to replace it, then it will re-populate?

As long as the disk only had data you marked as duplicated then you will lose nothing.

If I create a user, can I create a folder that is only visible to them?

The contents of it anyways, yes.

How do you back up the server OS itself? Do you go with the built in or 3rd party?

It has it's own backup but it's very basic and only supports backing up data to one drive, which means if you have a 4+TB system backups are basically impossible with out another raid like system. Also the system configuration, etc are all lost; it's not a bare metal backup.

[rei]

For WHS 2003: http://social.microsoft.com/forums/e...-2fe40f176bf2/

[tolwyn]

Hmm. I'm not too concerned in backing up the main volume of WHS (ie the data), I was more interested in knowing if there was an easy way to backup and restore the C: SYS drive, which is only 20 gb. If there isn't then I'll try not to install too much on it (I was thinking of installing XBMC, MySQL server and a few other apps).

[DennyA]

Benefits of Ubuntu over Windows:

- price

True. Linux is free. But I imagine installing/configuring Windows for your hardware is a helluva lot faster if you're not a Unix wiz, so you have to decide if your time is worth money.

- uptime (Windows will reboot on the order of once a week spontaneously or due to security updates or because of bluescreens)

Untrue.

Windows 7 doesn't spontaneously reboot or bluescreen if there are no hardware issues. And as for security updates, you can set those to download automatically but install manually at your convenience.

- maintenance (Ubuntu Server - everything is done through a shell from a remote machine or web apps - no need for a keyboard or monitor on the box at all once you finish initial setup)

You can do this on Windows as well.

My home server is my media center PC. It's mainly a server, but we occasionally use it for TV web browsing or backup PVR work. It never reboots unless I tell it. And it has no keyboard/mouse attached. I either use Remote Desktop from my laptop or iPad to maintain it, or a mouse/keyboard app on my iPad.

[rei]

Hmm. I'm not too concerned in backing up the main volume of WHS (ie the data), I was more interested in knowing if there was an easy way to backup and restore the C: SYS drive, which is only 20 gb. If there isn't then I'll try not to install too much on it (I was thinking of installing XBMC, MySQL server and a few other apps).

you need to have 20gb of space elsewhere then to copy off to.

[rei]

wait--you can't backup the *sys* drive.

you have to do go through a specific process as outlined in my link.

the "main volume" is not the data but the system/sys/operating system.

[tolwyn]

you need to have 20gb of space elsewhere then to copy off to.

That's no problem, I have a couple of 1tb drives that I can hook up via one of those USB docks.

[tolwyn]

wait--you can't backup the *sys* drive.

you have to do go through a specific process as outlined in my link.

the "main volume" is not the data but the system/sys/operating system.

Maybe I missed something, but that linked thread only discussed how users could not actually back up the OS. Recommendation was to reload the OS, rebuild the shares and then redo the user profiles?

[rei]

yes, and in that way you can't really "backup" the system/operating system folder like you wanted...right?

[Vesper]

There's really no need to.. As your links show, it all can be rebuilt with all of your data intact if the system drive dies.

Also, for WHS users I recommend Cloudberry Backup which works great for offsite backup of your data (I use Amazon S3, but there are other options as well).

[tolwyn]

Ya, I get it, I was just hoping there would be a simpler solution.
The backup from client PCs to WHS is bare metal, though... right?
Cloudberry looks interesting, but there's nothing on the server that I can't afford not to lose other than personal documents, and those I already have multiple backups of, including offsite.
I have maybe 5-6 terabytes of media, I can't imagine backing that up to the cloud, especially with our ridiculous Canadian ISP caps.

[Vesper]

The backup from PCs to WHS is pretty straightforward. There's a client that runs on each machine that it uses to run backups daily. The backups are incremental and allow you to go back to prior versions (Shadow copy) up until the disk space is capped that you have setup for backups. The cool thing is that you can completely rebuild a machine from a WHS. You boot off a CD (cd image is pre-installed on one of the WHS shares) and it will take a bare drive and restore your exact system from the WHS.

[tolwyn]

Vesper, that's what I was hoping for, thanks! I've already started backing up from all clients.

[rei]

Thread necro: My HP MediaSmart EX490 8TB died overnight today for some reason. Either mainboard or system drive failed but won't know if all 8TB of my porn...er, media-shifted TV I mean survived.

Now my choices are:

Patriot Javelin S4 for $350

or...the wumpus box connected via esata to a ...4-bay SANS Digital enclosure for $90

Case will be $75
CPU will be $119
Mobo (Asus P8H67-I) will be $150

I have RAM and 2.5" HD to use in it.

Any feedback?

[rei]

Going to go with a AMD APU for $120 for a much cheaper build.

[tolwyn]

my only feedback is that I've had my box up running WHS for 4 months and it has been steady as a rock. My only downtime has been a power failure. I'm really loving the drive extender and I'll only move to WHS 2011 when something similar is in place and works reliably.

[rei]

Yeah, mine ran solid for 3 years until it decided to die yesterday. I think it was the mobo or system drive/Windows install.

[tolwyn]

well, I guess the only consolation is that having the MB or system disk go down is a pretty easy thing to fix. It looks like a bare metal restore is pretty simple with WHS.

[ARogan]

Drive Bender has been released:
http://live.drivebender.com/index.php

It's $40 and there is a free trial. I might play with it some over the weekend.

This feature sounds really interesting:

NON-DESTRUCTIVE
One of the key Drive Bender features is its non-destructive file system technology. In short, this means that all drives within a Drive Bender pool are utilizing standard NTFS format and file structures. This is to such an extent that a drive can be pulled from the pool and read on any machine capable of reading an NTFS formatted drive. More over, drives attached to the pool can be done so without modification, if a drive is added (not merged) that contains existing data, that data will remain untouched.

[tolwyn]

That looks interesting, but I think I'd wait a while before jumping in full hog. In all honesty, I thought that I would use WHS until WHS 2011 had somthing like this, but I'm finding that WHS is so solid that I simply don't feel the need to fiddle with it.

[Enidigm]

I have an EX490, but i've never been terribly impressed. It's not had problems though, it just doesn't sparkle. (Aside from the um... flashing lights).

I'm thinking about upgrading to WHS 11 or even trying to get some version of OS X server to work with it. I suppose i could also go the linux route.

[mkozlows]

And, Windows Home Server is officially killed.

I think this is just one of those things where the move to cloud-based storage ended up killing the home server market except for ultra-geeks, and ultra-geeks are going to be running Linux anyway.

[DennyA]

They are adding the home server functionality to the low-end Server Essentials version, though. They also killed 8 of the pro server SKUs. (Glad the folks making those decisions have finally decided to have fewer Windows and Server SKUs.)

I do most of the stuff a Home Server can do (host backups, serve music/video) with a Media Center PC that also serves as a DVR, big-screen web browser, and big-screen PC gaming rig. Other than the automated backup, my setup seems more flexible than a home server, which is why I never built one.

[mkozlows]

I'm sure a lot of the functionality is there -- but I'm also sure that nobody's going to be making little headless appliance boxes with hot-swappable drives like they tried to do with WHS.

[rei]

http://drivebender.com/ is 50% off for a limited time at $20. I might try this for my Win7 Home Premium XBMC-running system.

[rei]

http://stablebit.com/ is the other option. But it seems to be for WHS and Server OSes only while DriveBender supports XP and up.